Any not-posh private schools?!

[mumyes]

Been viewing a few private schools recently and bugger me they're all so fucking posh.

I love the amazing facilities & resources, but they lose me with the excessive snootiness, exclusively wealthy families and when they talk about all the prep schools they're close to.

My DC is at a (lovely) state primary.

Does such a thing as a nice, moderately academic Indy school where not all the kids are from wealthy families exist?!

Such a generalisation and assumption. Are you honestly every child in U.K. private schools are miserable (and their oarent)?

No idea what you mean by that.

I send my children to academically selective private schools - they enjoy school and have a lovely group of friends whose parents are also equally friendly and supportive of each other.

They have, at a young age, learnt not to generalise or make assumptions about people

OP, I teach in a private school that I wouldn't describe as posh. Many of the kids I teach have parents who are spending every last penny on their education, in a city where the only decent state school is a church school, and many of our students are from a different religion to Christianity, in a city that is very ethnically diverse. However, it still costs £16kish per year, I think, and we are operating on a tight budget. It just wouldn't be possible to run a decent private school for less than that. By and large our students are pleasant and well behaved, perform better in exams than might be expected given their base level of ability, enjoy school and leave with happy memories. It's not perfect, but where is? If you want to know where it is (borderline East Midlands/East Anglia) send me a PM.

Same. My children are definitely not miserable. And not am I!!!

Thank you for this. V interesting to see if from a teacher's perspective.

They won’t “be with and learn to get on with kids from all backgrounds / walks of life” in a grammar school, OP. Grammar schools are overwhelmingly about kids from middle class families; the idea that they provide a leg up for “rough but bright” kids had some truth decades ago, but is rarely the case today.

Exactly. Grammar schools are for the privileged.

My private school isn't stuck up. The girls are feisty but the reality is they are protected and somewhat unaware of the hurly burly of a typical state school. We have a range of incomes from parent on low income (full scholarships), nurses, teachers, engineers, social workers, through to something in the city. Some cars are scruffy, some are huge and shiny (dad's a builder). But the fees have to be around 15 - 18 grand if you want the quality of teaching, the tech, the science experiments, the endless extra curricular, the endless PE opportunities. Grounds maintenance costs a fortune. We still have tight budgets within our depts. i still occasionally pay for a few items out of my own pocket. Pensions cost a fortune. You can find non posh like my school but you can't find cheap and if you do, there will be economies like not a huge gcse option choice or the PE teacher also teaching science. You seem to want your cake and to eat it but then who doesn't. You have my sympathy- I couldn't afford to send my child privately.

The idea that grammar schools expose kids to diversity and all walks of life is truly laughable. It didn’t when they were created and it certainly doesn’t now.

Australia is an interesting model. About 1/3 of all kids go to "private schools," but the majority of these are what I would classify as "semi-private," since they actually get loads of state money which is why they are relatively affordable; around 40-75% of their expenses are covered by the government, so parents are effectively only paying a topup.

(Actually, a twitter account I follow described them as "Tesco Value" private schools, if I remember rightly.)

After adjusting for parental income and education etc., going private in Oz appears to make no difference to academic attainment. They basically have smarter facilities and uniforms. Not sure what else they are supposed to be doing compared to the 100% gov-funded schools.

theconversation.com/going-to-private-school-wont-make-a-difference-to-your-kids-academic-scores-175638

A middle class Oz friend of mine was thinking of about relocating to the UK a few years back, but nearly fainted when she learned how much it would cost to put all three of hers in private school here. I did explain that in the UK, state schools are considered perfectly fine if you are in a good area and that private schools are really only used by a small % of the population, but I guess "private" schools are now seen as the norm by Australians who have any money at all.

I guess one point I would make here is that "private school" has acquired social cachet in Australia regardless of the fact that they are widely used and affordable.

The grammar school argument rather assumes one's children will get in. If enough grammars exist in an area, the remaining schools become secondary moderns in fact if not name, and their education gets worse.

Grammars are also predominantly middle to upper middle class nowadays with many children tutored to get in. Depending on the area, parents may be choosing between grammars and private, not grammars and comps.

Looking at things realistically, private schools are run as businesses and they need to balance the books. There are cheaper ones which spend less on the frills, but at secondary level these are fewer and far between.

This is a weird thread.

You're looking for a private school where the parents aren't wealthy?! But by their definition, most parents who can privately educate their kids will be wealthy. I think you're looking for a unicorn, or a grammar school.

At our private school 'posh' isn't the word I would use. The parents are over-achievers (surgeons etc) who have spent years saving and climbing the career ladder before having kids - no young parents here. A number of immigrant families, including a recent joinee from Ukraine. British Asian we'll represented. So, in that sense, quite diverse.

I've taught at a school mentioned on here for a long time. The parents are by and large wealthy, but only a minority are 'posh' in the sense that their voices, clothes and mannerisms fit the stereotype. Most of them are very nice, polite and very 'normal'.

"If both parents earned an "average" salary of £30,000 each a year and desperately wanted their children in private school I think they probably could scrape together the £15,000 as I said"

😂

I'm afraid they couldn't. Especially now with the cost if living crisis. I put most of our money into the savings account for the fees at the beginning of each month and spend the rest of the month obsessively checking my bank balance.

Basically you want an academically selective school in a diverse city with assisted places… I went to a one of those in the 90s, & although there were a lot of wealthier kids there were also plenty of kids who didn’t go abroad, lived in ordinary semis, mix of professional parents & recent immigrants running corner shops etc. I often wonder what it’s like now as I don’t think the bursary scheme will have replaced the assisted places fully.

However, my DC goes to a very big standard comp with pretty poor results in a small rural town & is flying.

I know of two in East Anglia, but I guess that is too far.

Might be too far

https://www.wymondhamcollege.org/

I don't think there's selectively a private school which is 5k a year or under

Academical schools are crammed schools. Ones that cost 0.

Grammar

@dontbenastyhaveapasty has it spot on

State schools it costs about 7k a year per student. So there's no market for a school with all the bells and whistles for even less than that.

Hence why you can't find any!!!

Even here the cheapest Montessori school is 5k a term.

Bolton School (Boys and Girls) - offers bursary’s to 1/5th of senior school pupils. The money for bursaries are generated through the school Alumni and local charitable trusts. Their aim by 2030 is to make that 1 in 3